Archive for Anger

When a young pastor, I recall leaving a graveside service. Outwardly, I seemed calm and serious. Inwardly, I was berating myself for forgetting parts of the Lord’s Prayer.

I hardly knew the son and daughter of the recently deceased. They’d called my church, searching for a minister to help them in their “hour of need.” Now, with the simple service finished, the two siblings walked behind me. Without glancing back, I slowed to eavesdrop on their conversation. Were they exchanging snide criticisms about the stupid pastor who didn’t know the words to Christianity’s most famous prayer?

No. They were not.

They were arguing about their mother’s will and her possessions.

I had forgotten the Lord’s Prayer’s final sentences. How embarrassing! At the open grave of a stranger, with a handful of her family that I’d only met in one meeting prior to the service, I’d shut my Book of Worship, and then invited the mourners to pray with me. It was just the Lord’s Prayer. They were words I’d memorized as a kid in Sunday school and had recited every Sunday (and more) throughout my life. But it was one of my first graveside services. I was nervous. I blanked. Faking a few final mumbled words, I hurried to the “Amen.”

The family didn’t know me. They also likely didn’t know any formal prayers, including the “one Jesus taught his disciples to say.” Like most pastors, I occasionally received calls from “strangers” asking for help with a funeral or wedding. I met twice with this family: once to plan the service (“Mother just wanted a few words and a prayer, pastor.”) and once at the grave.

Entering into hospice care reveals the best and worst of us. Responses and relationships seem on edge: raw, exposed, and vulnerable.

Anger is alphabetically and dramatically near the top of an emotional volcano when a doctor announces there are only six months or less to live. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross famously identified anger as one of the five stages of dying. (And though her efforts have often been misconstrued—for example, the “stages” aren’t sequential and predictable—Kubler-Ross’ insights into dying, death, and grief are essential reading.)

But instead of anger as one of five “stages,” I wonder about four ways that I’ve witnessed anger erupt when a loved one faces death.

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1. Anger at God

People from any religion that worships a supreme being can have anger towards God for “causing” a loved one’s illness. Regardless of how much or how little faith matters to a believer, how could God do this to me, or to my beloved? I have witnessed similar rage towards God from eighty-something husbands learning about a wife’s stage four cancer and from parents whose pre-teen daughter has just been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness.

Age doesn’t matter. Don’t comfort anyone by saying a parent or spouse has “lived a long, good life.” Everyone wants another day, month, and year(s). Don’t try to reassure a parent watching a child slip away by claiming God has a plan or that the child is “needed” in heaven. Read More →

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Worth Pondering...

“Every great loss demands that we choose life again. We need to grieve in order to do this. The pain we have not grieved over will always stand between us and life. When we don’t grieve, a part of us becomes caught in the past like Lot’s wife who, because she looked back, was turned into a pillar of salt.”- Rachel Naomi Remen

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The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization website has a search page for locating a reputable hospice close to you.